Round 03: Assen Circuit – Netherlands

Netherlands

April 28, 2013

Podium For Rea in Race One But Bad Luck For Haslam

Jonathan Rea (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) made real progress at his team’s home round of Assen in the third round of the FIM Superbike World Championship, scoring a second place in race one and was only just off the podium in the second race in fourth place.

Jonathan Rea

Jonathan Rea

He is now up to fifth in the overall rankings after his first podium of the year on his CBR1000RR.

In contrast Leon Haslam (Pata Honda World Superbike Team) was ruled out of the event early after falling at turn seven on Friday in wet conditions, suffering serious breaks to his left tibia and fibula that will require surgery. After some consultation with doctors in the Netherlands Leon elected to go home to the UK to have a pin inserted in his leg, in order to speed up his recovery process.

Rea, who had qualified in second position, had found his electronics package much improved throughout this event and that allowed him to be a force at the front on raceday. Assen is no longer his team’s designated test track and with the first day of practice dominated by cold and wet weather, he and his team had in effect one day to make final race preparations. Now that the round has been run at Assen, Rea and his team will test at the circuit on Wednesday and Thursday to make further machine improvements in readiness for the next round at Monza on May 12.

In the first 22-lap race he got away behind flag-to-flag leader Tom Sykes (Kawasaki) but ended up in an almost race-long battle with Aprilia riders Sylvain Guintoli and Eugene Laverty. In race two Jonathan changed rear tyre options and that had an eventual effect on his fourth place result, despite finishing only 5.8 seconds from the win itself.

In the championship Rea is fifth overall on 63 points and Haslam is now 13th, with 29. The fourth round of the season takes place at Monza, Italy, on May 12.

Local Rider Van Der Mark Recovers Brilliantly To Take Fourth

The Assen round of the 2013 FIM Supersport World Championship was a home event for Michael van Der Mark (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) and despite ending his first lap only 11th he battled back to score fourth place and end his day as top Honda rider. Van der Mark had been 11th on the grid but at one stage in the race he was down in 14th place. Michael’s magic race performance kept him second in the overall standings.

The race itself was won by Sam Lowes (Yamaha) from Kawasaki pairing Kenan Sofuoglu and Fabien Foret, with Foret still the championship points leader.

After a wet Friday and a cold Saturday raceday was dry and sunny, a factor which helped Lorenzo Zanetti (Pata Honda World Supersport Team) take a top ten finish at his team’s home circuit, despite experiencing some tyre issues after mid race distance.

Jack Kennedy (Rivamoto Honda) was in line for a top four race finish, to replicate his qualifying position, until he was overhauled on lap 18 of 21. Having only one day of set-up had taken its toll on the rookie’s race settings and he had to concede places to riders who had more tyre life left at the very end. He finished seventh in the race and is now eighth overall.

Some tough luck for other Honda riders meant that Zanetti in tenth was the last Honda points scorer. Gabor Talmacsi (PRORACE Honda) was 16th, Raffaele De Rosa (Team Lorini Honda) 17th and Alex Schacht (Racing Team Toth Honda) was 19th.

“It is so nice to be back up on the podium again. It was a bit frustrating in race one because we had absolutely nothing for Tom today, he was on a different planet but I have to be happy with the way I rode. When you put 100% effort in and get a result like this it is always satisfying. It was good fun riding with Sylvain at the end and it was close and safe and we both ended up on the podium. I felt I could battle with Tom and Eugene in the second race but I outbraked myself a few times in the first two or three laps. When I got my rhythm back Giugliano balked me and then I only had the pace for third. I was strong in the section, coming back to the paddock area in race one but in race two our rear tyre was spinning much more. It was cutting too much power so I lost out in acceleration in those areas. The bike felt pretty good in the other areas. For engine braking into the corners and in throttle pick up I feel we are as good as any of the others. We just need to work on pure acceleration when I get onto the throttle. I am just happy to be on the podium today and to have scored good points.”

“When I can come back all depends on when I get the operation to pin my leg. I am confident the strength would be there and then it is a case of getting over the trauma. I normally heal pretty fast. I remember the crash and it just low sided as the back came around as I entered turn seven. Then the footpeg went through my leathers on the right leg and then I got my left leg caught in the bike as I tried to kick it off me. It flipped and I think that is when I got the injury.”

“In the beginning it was so difficult because even though we made a change to the set-up of the bike this morning we did not have the grip we wanted but after a few laps I changed my riding style and managed to pass a few people. I kept pushing towards the front and I am extremely happy to be fourth. The team worked really hard all weekend so it was a shame that we could not find a perfect set-up but we must be happy with a fourth place. I just wanted to take out everything about riding at my home race from my mind and I think what we did was the most we could do on this weekend.”

“I had a good start and I think I was seventh. In the first seven or eight laps, when the tyre was new, I had a good feeling and good rhythm. But when the tyre performance down a little bit it was the same thing I experienced at Aragon. The brake points become longer and it becomes difficult to stop the bike. In the race, when fighting other riders, this makes it too difficult. The other riders can pass under brakes, so we have to work on that. But finishing inside the top ten shows my potential and the team.”

“My race came down to set-up and tyre life in the end. I made a good enough start and then got to third then sat behind Fabien Foret, I felt comfortable in there behind him but then started to lose grip so I could not keep the traction level against him. I started to have a bit of a lonely race in fourth but then I saw on my pit board the gap to the guys behind me getting smaller and smaller which is the last thing you want to see. I tried to dig as deep as I could just to stay ahead with some consistent laps, but they kept closing. I had nothing left to fight with but we got more good information from race so I hope we can move forward with this.”

Gabor Talmacsi
Race result: 16th - Championship position: N/A

"I am very disappointed and we are just trying to understand what is going on with the settings. In Australia I was really happy until the crash and I recovered very fast, but the bike was not so good. We need to go back to the same setup as last year to see what is going on because finishing 16th is not my real level of performance. It feels like the bike does not ‘listen’ to me.”